I've been a fan of 'the Prisoner' for much of my life, and am a sucessful columnist on the subject.

Sunday, 6 March 2011

It Doesn't Make Sense!

If anything, the Prisoner series is full of differential anomalies. Take Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling, there are more holes in that episode, than which appear in the village of the 2009 series! First of all 'they' are looking for Professor Jacob Seltzman, and there is a question about whether or not he has perfected a "reversal" process, so that the minds of two men can once again be rightly housed in their own bodies....................... But a reversal process isn't required, all that needs to be done is to put the same two subjects through the exact same process they were originally put through. Where's the problem? I mean it's hardly rocket science is it! And if the Administration for The Village are looking for Professor Jacob Seltzman, how did they acquire a "Seltzman" machine in the first place?

This is No.73, who has been brought to The Village, instead of her husband, because the Administration doesn't know where her husband is! 73 is interrogated by a sadistic No.2 at the outset of Hammer Into Anvil. No.2 wants 73 to tell him where her husband is. Apparently he's still "over there." When pushed further on this matter she says "Oh somehwere there,2 without being too precise, suggesting her husband might be behind the Iron Curtain, he had some work to finish. No.2 then asks if her husband was devoted to her, to which 73 replies that her husband is devoted to her. Then No.2 taunts 73 by showing her a photograph of her husband with the woman Mariah, at which 73 shuts her eyes tightly against, shaking her head in dispair. Well I find it highly ridiculous that 73 was brought to The Village in order to get her to tell them where her husband is, when they are able to take a photograph of her husband caught in flagrante dilicto, with the woman Miriah! What's more I can reveal that there was no inflagrante in that photograph. In fact 73's husband isn't even in that photograph shown to her by No.2, and if she had only kept her eyes open, 73 would have seen that for herself. Now, I can reveal to you, exactly who it is in that photograph........Oi, just a minute! What are you doing?.............That's my text, you can't just come in here and shread it like that! "Sorry Piet, but you were about to reveal something which I wish to remain secret, for the time being. Now write about something else. Here, write about this!"

..........What's this? Ah, it's a transcript of the maiden speech made by the electoral candidate No.6. Well that's what it appeared to be on first glance. But after reading it, I find it isn't anything of the kind. Nor is it a transcript of the interview carried out by No.113, in the Village taxi with No6 on his way to the dissolution of the out-going Council. This is a piece of manipulative journalism, made up from bits and pieces said at different times, and much of it reinterpreted and written in different words! But isn't that what the press does? Makes things up, twists things, puts a different interpretation to what is told to the press?
All you have to do is read the following transcript of that interview between No.113 and No.6.
No.113 "How are you going to handle your campaign?"
No.6 "No comment."
No.113 writes "Intends to fight for freedom at all costs." "How about your internal policy?"
No.6 "No comment."
No.113 writes "Will tighten up on village security." "How about your external policy?"
No.6 "No comment."
No.113 writes "Our exports will operate in every corner of the globe." "How do you feel about life and death?"
No.6 "Mind your own business."
Nol.113 writes "No comment."
No.113 putting his own answers to his own questions, thereby distorting the truth, that No.6 doesn't care to answer questions, and doesn't the press get to work quickly. Because moments after the interview with No.6, No.6 is given a copy of the latest edition of The Tally Ho by the vendor of the village newspaper outside the Town Hall. The headline of the newspaper is, No.6 Speaks His Mind, which has absolutely nothing to do with either his maiden speech, or the ineterview with No.113. As someone, somewhere, has already written this article for The Tally Ho. So that even No.113, in putting answers to his own questions put to No.6, counts for nothing, in the undemocratic state of The Village!I'm Piet Hein

About Me

An enthusiast of the 1960's television series 'the Prisoner.' A writer, author, and considered an authority on the series.
'The Prisoner' captivated me from the moment of that clash of thunder in the opening sequence, and I have been a prisoner of 'the Prisoner' ever since.